Peggy's Excellent Italiano Adventure: Inside Casa Faraglioni

Kithchen looking out to terraced gardens and sea

Now the house. As I said, I had studied the internet photos so I knew the furnishings were Italian sparse and kitschy. I just wanted clean, some heat in the rooms I would live in, a comfy chair or two, internet and a place to write with a view. Supposedly this was all here. As Adriana led us in the house we entered a long, blue tiled and pretty hall with several doors. She opened a door into the living room and there was the table and chairs and couch I had seen in the photos, but best of all it was heated. Well, second best, as the room also had French doors opening onto a small balcony overlooking the ocean. Adriana’s family also had a terrace below that balcony. But from the table, where I sit now, all I can see is ocean, almost like I am still on a cruise ship. From that room were two bedrooms, each sleeping 2 people. All those rooms had tall domed ceilings that, if you are in the right spot, you actually get an echo from somewhere else in the room. If you look at buildings in this region you often see the domed houses and this house happens to have three domes, one in each of the three front rooms and the ceilings go right to the top of the domes. As to why they build the domes, that is another thing I have been trying to research with no luck. And I have yet to find someone fluent enough in English to explain it to me. The master bedroom is quite large and has an attached bathroom and another small balcony that looks over the ocean and my terrace. I can change clothes and you would have to be on a boat on the sea with binoculars to see me. Wonderful. These three rooms have heat. Then Adriana showed us the bathroom in the hall, another typical tiled Italian room with NO heat, but fine with me as that was for guests. And lastly, she showed us the kitchen. Absolutely no heat, as my son showed me the next day, two vents which simply are screens straight to the outside. I suppose a good Italian Mama is cooking up such a storm all day she would keep the place heated. Not so me. It was a nice enough kitchen, long and large with a window to the terraced gardens along the house and out to the sea. And a big basket of fresh fruit compliments of Adriana: lemons and oranges from the groves all around and lovely apples. All the rooms have furniture in a wood laminate with a pale mint color on the front. So you can guess which color I will never want to see again –sort of reminds me of a hospital color.

Meanwhile the two boys were in ecstasy over how cool the place was and the fantastic views and layout of the exterior. They were blown away. Pulling out the cigars and getting ready for sunset on the terrace, I was being a bit more practical and unpacking and worrying about trying to get food, and turning up the heat, checking for toilet paper, and finding bottled water because I didn’t want to die of water poisoning. I cannot relax until I am unpacked, the cupboards are filled and everything is in its place. My son realized that, so the boys ran down the stairs (I was jealous) to check out the stores down below and to talk to the priest in my very nearby church. They came back up all excited. Everything I needed was at that foot of the stairs. Yep. 127 plus 8 uneven stairs down and UP. No problem, I had just pulled myself up by the railing earlier so I pictured myself slinging the groceries over my shoulder and dragging them up as I did hand over hand on the railing. Or, I thought, maybe a pack mule. But I figured as long as I didn’t buy too much or anything heavy and no one was watching me climb back up and stop every 20 steps, I would be fine. So the plan was, all heavy food and water would be bought while the boys were there to do the toting. My daughter was coming in a few weeks and she could replenish then. This was why I was not in South America – children can be useful when they outgrow adolescence.

The boys had also met the parish priest, Padre Pio, (no relation to the saint, but there is a big picture of the saint in the church) and had gotten permission to say an English mass the next day, Sunday. Adriana had told us what restaurants were open, as this is low season and most hotels and restaurants are closed, and we made plans for going to dinner as we were putting the food away for the next day. Then the three of us walked down the stairs, me like a little kid, hands on the railing, one foot down on a step then the other foot on the same step, until the railing switched to other side of the stairs, then I started with the other foot. Praiano here I come!